Keidel: Jets Fans Should Be Pumped -- Not Paranoid -- About Rex In Buffalo
By Jason Keidel
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NFL geeks are notorious for parsing every particle of film. Coaches, scouts, and executives are renowned for literally living in their offices, snoring on cots or couches, staggering around with permanent bed head, pizza boxes strewn across their desks.
So you wonder what about Rex Ryan was so compelling to the Buffalo Bills. Ryan's Jets went 4-12 last year, and we're clobbered 81-26 by the Bills over two games, including a 38-3 drubbing on Nov. 24 -- a game scheduled for Nov. 23 but was postponed and relocated to Detroit because of biblical snow that fell on Orchard Park.
The Bills' players and coaches literally had to take snowmobiles around town. The Jets had an extra day to prepare and an extra night in their own beds, while the Bills had to worry if their roofs would literally collapse on theirs.
I don't understand the dichotomy of the Jets fan. At once you wanted to run Rex out of town. On the other hand you're horrified that he's still in your division.
So what? If you dump your girlfriend why do you care if she dates your co-worker? You already know how it ends. If he didn't learn from watching you fight with her, from the gray hair sprouting like weeds on your scalp, then that's on him.
As Mike Francesa said during his Sunday football show, Rex took over a team with a stout defense and a questionable quarterback and didn't win a title. Now he's doing a redux. Kyle Orton, an eternal QB gypsy, just retired, leaving a curious chasm at the sport's most vital position.
Sure, Ryan is drooling over the idea of Buffalo's rabid pass rush and bone-crunching linebackers. But how does this story end any differently? He still can't coach or develop offensive players.
Who will be the face of the franchise? EJ Manuel? Or, heaven forbid, Mark Sanchez? Haven't we seen this film before?
As happy as Ryan fans might be for him, this is actually the worst thing that could have happened to the loquacious coach. Being so coveted and quickly hired reinforces his warped sense that he has all the answers, that he really was hamstrung by the Jets.
Ryan has proved, if nothing else, that he's imbued with the family gene of genius salesmanship. His father, Buddy, failed in Philadelphia, yet was quickly hired by the Cardinals. You may recall he boldly asserted there was a "winner in town" during his opening presser in Arizona. He did not, however, come close to a Super Bowl ring in the desert.
Jets fans should love this, not loathe it. You have a coach who went 26-38 over his last four seasons, with an epic hole under center, and no help on the horizon. Since Buffalo went a robust 9-7 this season they have no shot at one of the two blue chip quarterbacks in this year's draft, Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota.
Not that he's anywhere near the Lombardi Trophy he so often assured us in New York. But if any job were catered to his acute allergy to offense, it was Atlanta, where the Falcons are stuffed with skill players. Matt Ryan, Roddy White, and Julio Jones could more than fill Ryan's blind spot on that side of the ball.
But Ryan was smart to take this gig, in a self-preservation sense. He came within a whisker of getting the Falcons job years ago before losing out to Mike Smith. Had he waited for Arthur Blank to make a move, he may have lost both gigs. Maybe Ryan is a fan of the show "Shark Tank," which has taught us that it's prudent to take one offer from the first billionaire than wait for a second.
No doubt Ryan is great for football and this move is great theater. He's just not a great coach. It speaks either to a dearth of decent coaching talent or the league's inability to find it.
No matter. Rex Ryan is still in football, still in New York, and still in the AFC East. And that's a good thing, even if it's not too good for Rex Ryan's new employer.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel
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